Network Working Group M. Crawford
Request for Comments: 2464 Fermilab
Obsoletes: 1972 December 1998
Category: Standards Track
Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet Networks
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
1. Introduction
This document specifies the frame format for transmission of IPv6
packets and the method of forming IPv6 link-local addresses and
statelessly autoconfigured addresses on Ethernet networks. It also
specifies the content of the Source/Target Link-layer Address option
used in Router Solicitation, Router Advertisement, Neighbor
Solicitation, Neighbor Advertisement and Redirect messages when those
messages are transmitted on an Ethernet.
This document replaces RFC 1972, "A Method for the Transmission of
IPv6 Packets over Ethernet Networks", which will become historic.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].
2. Maximum Transmission Unit
The default MTU size for IPv6 [IPV6] packets on an Ethernet is 1500
octets. This size may be reduced by a Router Advertisement [DISC]
containing an MTU option which specifies a smaller MTU, or by manual
configuration of each node. If a Router Advertisement received on an
Ethernet interface has an MTU option specifying an MTU larger than
1500, or larger than a manually configured value, that MTU option may
be logged to system management but must be otherwise ignored.
Crawford Standards Track [Page 1]RFC 2464 IPv6 Packets over Ethernet December 1998
For purposes of this document, information received from DHCP is
considered "manually configured" and the term Ethernet includes
CSMA/CD and full-duplex subnetworks based on ISO/IEC 8802-3, with
various data rates.
3. Frame Format
IPv6 packets are transmitted in standard Ethernet frames. The
Ethernet header contains the Destination and Source Ethernet
addresses and the Ethernet type code, which must contain the value
86DD hexadecimal. The data field contains the IPv6 header followed
immediately by the payload, and possibly padding octets to meet the
minimum frame size for the Ethernet link.
0 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Destination |
+- -+
| Ethernet |
+- -+
| Address |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source |
+- -+
| Ethernet |
+- -+
| Address |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| IPv6 |
+- -+
| header |
+- -+
| and |
+- -+
/ payload ... /
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
(Each tic mark represents one bit.)
Crawford Standards Track [Page 2]RFC 2464 IPv6 Packets over Ethernet December 19984. Stateless Autoconfiguration
The Interface Identifier [AARCH] for an Ethernet interface is based
on the EUI-64 identifier [EUI64] derived from the interface's built-
in 48-bit IEEE 802 address. The EUI-64 is formed as follows.
(Canonical bit order is assumed throughout.)
The OUI of the Ethernet address (the first three octets) becomes the
company_id of the EUI-64 (the first three octets). The fourth and
fifth octets of the EUI are set to the fixed value FFFE hexadecimal.
The last three octets of the Ethernet address become the last three